Heart-y Countdown Peppa Pig and the I-Love-You-Game by Neville Ashley

"TODAY IS THE DAY WE CELEBRATE EVERYTHING WE LOVE," SAYS MUMMY PIG. "WE CAN PLAY THE I-LOVE-YOU-GAME!"

"I LOVE GAMES!" SAYS PEPPA.

And it seems that Peppa especially loves talking about things she loves. She launches into a long list--birthday parties with balloons and cake with candles to blow out. She loves cookies. She loves dressing up, and.....

Granny Pig softly interrupts Peppa's eruption of favorites and turns to little Georgie to give him a chance to join in. Georgie jumps in quickly with his short list!

"DINO-SAW!!!!!"

Undeterred, Peppa plows on. She loves rainbows and books about rainbows and drawing rainbows. And then she loves ... spiders.

"NOT ME!" SHIVERS DADDY PIG.

Grandpa Pig grabs the conversational ball before Peppa can pop back in, remarking that he loves his blackberry bushes, and Grandma adds that she loves picking his blackberries and eating blackberry pies.

Peppa breaks in again.

"I LOVE LOTS OF THINGS!" SAYS PEPPA.

No kidding!

She continues with her list. She loves her friend Suzy Sheep, and Goldie, her Goldfish, and, and.....

The list of "things" Peppa loves seems endless. Parrots and pizza and pictures she draws, and playing her drums, and planting plants in Grandpa's garden plot. Everyone in the family nods, a bit weary of Peppa's monopolizing monologue. With a slightly ironic smile, Mummy Pig wryly asks if she is quite sure she hasn't forgotten anything. Peppa pauses.

"JUMPING IN MUD PUDDLES!"

And Peppa gets no argument from her family, who are, after all, pigs, in Neville Ashley's Peppa Pig and the I Love You Game (Candlewick Press). Preschool fans of the Peppa's Pig family cartoons will no doubt proceed to chime in with their own lists of best-loved things after hearing this one. A good story for the pre-Valentine's Day period, or for any time to get kids talking about whom or what they love.

Pair this one with Charlotte Pomerantz' and James Marshall's peerless poetic tale of puddles and pigs, The Piggy in the Puddle (Reading Rainbow Books) guaranteed to leave any kid giggling with glee.